World Food ProgrammeZero Hunger: the Heart of the 2030 Agenda

World Food Programme

The mission of the UN World Food Programme is to end global hunger. WFP provides frontline assistance in emergencies and works with governments, UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, companies and individuals to tackle the underlying factors causing hunger, to build self-reliance and improve food security. WFP is working towards a world with Zero Hunger, as outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) undersigned by the world’s governments last September.

• In 2015, the World Food Programme provided food assistance to a total of 76.7 million people in 81 countries.

• Of these, WFP provided school meals, snacks or take home rations to 17.4 million school children – among these 6.5 million children are in emergencies or post-emergency areas.

• Two-thirds of WFP’s work is in conflict-affected countries where people are three times more likely to be undernourished than those living in countries at peace.

• In 2015, WFP provided food assistance to 6.1 million refugees, 16.4 million internally displaced people and 1.3 million returnees.

• Increasingly, WFP meets people’s food needs through cash-based transfers that allow them to choose and shop for their own food locally. In 2015, 9.6 million people received food assistance through, for example, electronic cards, banknotes, vouchers or credit on their mobile phones.

• WFP works with more than 1,000 national and international NGO partners to provide food assistance and tackle the underlying causes of hunger.

• As well as providing food assistance, WFP supported 1.8 million people who were trained in areas of nutrition and food security or smallholder farmers who were connected to food markets.

• WFP is funded entirely by voluntary donations – in 2015 WFP raised close to US$5 billion. During the year, 79 percent of WFP’s expenditures were directed to emergencies.

• WFP has more than 14,000 staff worldwide of whom over 90 percent are based in the countries where we provide assistance.

• On an average day, WFP has 20 ships, 70 planes and 5,000 trucks moving and delivering food and other assistance to those in need.

June 2016

ZERO HUNGER

World Food ProgrammeZero Hunger: the Heart of the 2030 Agenda

wfpinfo@wfp.org | wfp.org

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to be attained in 15 years, commit to leaving no one behind, and to reaching those furthest behind first. They explicitly call for reducing inequalities between men and women, between urban and rural areas, and socio-economic and other groups.

Sustainable Development Goal 2 aims to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”. It acknowledges that eradicating hunger means ensuring access to nutritious food for the most vulnerable, increasing agricultural production through sustainable and resilient food systems, and tackling the multiple causes of malnutrition.

Reducing poverty through inclusive economic growth is key to eliminating hunger and malnutrition. Governments must therefore allocate additional resources to investments that improve the food and nutrition security of the poorest.

• The vast majority of the world’s hungry people live in developing countries, where 12.9 percent of the population is undernourished.

• More than 80 percent of hungry people live in countries prone to degradation and disaster.

• Asia is the continent with the most hungry people - two thirds of the global total.

• Sub-saharan Africa is the region with the highest prevalence (percentage of population) of hunger. One person in four there is undernourished.

• Nearly half of all deaths in children under the age of five are attributable to undernutrition. This translates into the unnecessary loss of about 3 million young lives a year.

• Malnutrition affects one in two people on the planet. Of these: 165 million children under the age of five are estimated to be stunted – too small for their age.

• Almost one-third of the world’s population lives with the irreversible impact of stunting, which negatively affects brain and body development, educational achievement and earnings later in life.

• Two billion people lack key micronutrients – particularly iron, zinc, vitamin A and iodine. Micronutrient deficiencies, known as ‘hidden hunger’ impair the health of people throughout their lives.

• The annual social and economic cost of malnutrition amounts to US$3.5 trillion or US$500 per person globally.

• Nearly 1.9 billion people are estimated to be overweight; and over 600 million to be obese.

• Many developing countries now face growing rates of obesity alongside hunger and food insecurity. Both are a result of lack of access to the right food and are a ‘double burden’ for many countries.

June 2016

Over the last 15 years, 200 million people around the world were lifted out of hunger.

Yet 795 million people are still chronically undernourished.

That means 1 out of every 9 people on earth has insufficient food to lead a healthy life.

The target is Zero Hunger by 2030.

growth is key to eliminating hunger and malnutrition. Governments must therefore allocate additional resources to investments that improve the food and nutrition security of the poorest.

agriculture”. It acknowledges that eradicating hunger means ensuring access to nutritious food for the most vulnerable, increasing agricultural production through sustainable and resilient food systems, and tackling the multiple causes of malnutrition.

Reducing poverty through inclusive economic

agriculture”. It acknowledges that eradicating hunger means ensuring access to nutritious food for the most vulnerable, increasing agricultural production through sustainable and resilient food systems, and tackling the multiple causes of malnutrition.

Reducing poverty through inclusive economic

agriculture”. It acknowledges that eradicating hunger means ensuring access to nutritious food for the most vulnerable, increasing agricultural production through sustainable and resilient food systems, and tackling the multiple causes of malnutrition.

Reducing poverty through inclusive economic

Hunger Statistics

ZERO HUNGER